His comments could prompt a row with the Liberal Democrats, who are attempting
to force the Government to ring-fence the aid budget

Philip Hammond has rejected a “bizarre” plan to enshrine in law Britain’s commitment to spend billions of pounds every year on foreign aid.

The Foreign Secretary’s comments could prompt a row with the Liberal Democrats, who are attempting to force through legislation committing the Government to spending 0.7 per cent of GDP on foreign aid.

Mr Hammond said there is no need for a new law because the Government is already spending 0.7 per cent, which is a United Nations target.

Mr Hammond was speaking in Sierra Leone, where he visited a series of British-led projects assisting in the battle against Ebola, which has claimed almost 5,000 lives in west Africa.

Any new law would commit the Government to spending more than £12 billion annually.

However, Mr Hammond said: “Trying to enshrine it in law – it’s a bizarre idea. Somebody says shall we have a law that says you’ve got to build a building.

“Think about it – in the mean time we built a building. Someone comes along and says now we’ve built it shall we pass the law which says we’ve got to do it? We’ve done it. We’re doing it. You don’t need a law to say we’re doing it.”

Mr Hammond conceded that many voters are “sceptical” about foreign aid spending. However, he said that they must accept it because it helps to protect Britain from global “catastrophes” like Ebola.

The Ebola outbreak currently ravaging parts of West Africa shows that billions of pounds of British taxpayers’ money must continue to be spent on aid projects across the world, he said.

“The scepticism that some people have about the aid budget, which I absolutely recognise... I don’t think has ever been directed at emergency aid.

“I’ve never detected in Britain at all people saying we shouldn’t be sending food aid or disaster relief or earthquake relief.

“It’s never been that bit of the programme. It’s been the, 'We’ll invest over two decades in education in India, economic development in East Africa’. It’s that bit of it that people sometimes question.

“But I’m sure the British people always feel very well-disposed to the disaster relief.”

Mr Hammond added: “In the round, people have some questions about the way the aid budget is used and we’ve got to keep making the case that it is in Britain’s interest and we will keep making the case.”

The Conservatives and Lib Dems promised in the 2010 Coalition agreement not just to meet the UN target but also to ensure it was made a legally-binding commitment for the future.

But despite the target being hit, aid campaigners have been frustrated at the absence of legislation. Politicians who have called for the legislation have accused the Conservatives of not sticking to the agreement because of Right-wing members of the Tory Party who oppose greater levels of foreign aid spending.

The Lib Dems earlier this year tabled a private member’s bill to put the United Nations target on to the statute book and urged all parties to swing behind the legislation.

There has also been growing criticism that millions of pounds of British money intended to be used as foreign aid has been siphoned off by corrupt regimes in developing countries.

Mr Hammond said: “In countries that are corrupt, and that’s a lot of countries in the world, some of everything gets siphoned off in corruption and the aid budget isn’t excepted.”

Figures earlier this year disclosed that Britain hiked its aid spending by more than any other country in Europe last year.

Foreign aid soared by 28 per cent last year, meaning the UK hit its target of spending 0.7 per cent of GDP on overseas development. It left Britain with the second most generous aid budget in the world, outstripped only by the United States.

Mr Hammond made the comments as he toured Sierra Leone to see the impact the British military is having in the region. He visited an Ebola treatment centre being constructed by

soldiers from the Royal Engineers and local workers in Port Loco, a town at the epicentre of the outbreak.

Mr Hammond also visited a football stadium in Freetown, the country’s capital, where he saw British troops training locals in how to combat the disease without becoming infected themselves.

He said that now that UK troops are out of Afghanistan, more military resources could be devoted to assisting countries such as Sierra Leone when they are trying to combat deadly diseases or natural disasters.

More than 800 British soldiers are currently based in Sierra Leone.

There have been more than 14,000 cases of Ebola in West Africa already.

However, experts believe the true figure could be significantly higher because many people are not reporting cases of the disease.

Mr Hammond said that without the British intervention in Sierra Leone, more than a million people could have been infected, potentially putting Britain at risk. “This is a major health emergency. There’s a real risk that if there isn’t a major intervention to contain this epidemic, that it would become uncontrolled,” he said.

“The consequences then, particularly for West Africa but much more broadly for the world, would be catastrophic.

“There is an absolute need for this intervention. The UK has stepped up to the plate in a big way.

“What we’re doing in Sierra Leone is exemplary.”

The Foreign Secretary also said that he has secured an agreement with GSK, the pharmaceutical company, which could allow trials of an Ebola vaccine by next month.